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Lumberjack World Championships

Springboard Chop

Photograph by Ross McDermott, American Festivals Project

The win is up in the air for competitors in the springboard chop event at the 2009 Lumberjack World Championships in Hayward, Wisconsin. The annual competition draws athletes from around the world and showcases their power, agility, balance, and precision. In 2009, the American Festivals Project headed to Hayward for the 50th anniversary of the championships.

Jack and Jill Sawing

During the Jack and Jill sawing event, each team of one man and one woman races to be the first to cut completely through a 20-inch (51-centimeter) white pine. The world record: 6.17 seconds.

Women's Boom Run

Photograph by Ross McDermott, American Festivals Project

Abby Hoeschler from La Crosse, Wisconsin, is a blur as she speeds across floating logs in special cleated shoes in the women's boom run. In the timed event, two competitors race head-to-head on adjacent booms (lines of floating logs).

Hot Saw

Photograph by Ross McDermott, American Festivals Project

Some 12,000 fans pour into the Lumberjack Bowl over three days in late July to see sawdust fly in events like the hot saw. Using a single-cylinder, single-motor power saw, contestants must make three vertical cuts (down, up, and down) through a 20-inch (51-centimeter) white pine log.

All-Around Champion

Photograph by Andrew Owen, American Festivals Project

Jason Wynyard from Auckland, New Zealand, won his 11th consecutive All-Around Champion title in 2009. He dominated every competition including this one, the standing block chop. A full-time competitor, Wynyard enters six to eight shows a year. His wife is also a current world champion, and his father was a world champion in the 1960s.

National Anthems

Photograph by Andrew Owen, American Festivals Project

The Lumberjack World Championships celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009. All 50 annual competitions have been held in Hayward at the site of the old holding pond for Weyerhaeuser’s North Wisconsin Lumber Company. The event draws international competitors, and each day of the 2009 event began with the national anthems of Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.

Lumberjacks

Photograph by Andrew Owen, American Festivals Project

Rick Halvorson and his son wrap up the toothy blade on Halvorson’s hot saw. A veteran timber sportsman, Halvorson competes in 15-20 events a year.

Chain Saw Tattoo

Photograph by Ross McDermott, American Festivals Project

Competitor Derek Knutson’s tricep bears the name of a German chain saw company.

Pole Climber

Photograph by Andrew Owen, American Festivals Project

During the speed climb, competitors scale a 90-foot-tall (27-meter-tall) cedar spar pole and return to the ground in a controlled freefall, during which they spike into the wood perhaps half a dozen times before crashing into fluffy pads at the base of the pole.

Log Rollers

Photograph by Andrew Owen, American Festivals Project

J. R. Salzman lifts his prosthetic arm for balance in a preview of the men’s logrolling finals against Jamie Fischer. Salzman won the event five years in a row from 1998 to 2002 and again in 2005. In 2006, a roadside bomb outside Baghdad blew apart his arm. In 2009, Salzman went on to defeat Fischer to claim his seventh world logrolling title.

Jack and Jill Sawing

Photograph by Andrew Owen, American Festivals Project

To reduce friction on the crosscut saw in the Jack and Jill event, a third team member continuously sprays an oil-based lubricant.

Cauldron

Photograph by Ross McDermott, American Festivals Project

Just as at the Olympics, the Lumberjack World Championships has a cauldron to hold a ceremonial flame.